This cooler is pricey, but it's something special

Verdict

For testing, we used a high-flow 120mm fan, so in effect we're not showing the cooler at its best. A 140mm fan would provide either a higher flow rate or reduced noise, though it wasn't that loud with our test fan anyway.

Fitting the cooler takes a departure from the norm, since it uses a solid bar that runs over the top of the main cooling block. This screws into two more bars that run either side of the cooler and are screwed into the standard backplate fixing positions.

Initially, this is somewhat intimidating because there are a lot of unusual pieces.

But once in place is one of the most solid and easy-to-use fixing devices we've come across. It also means that, once in place, you only need to release two screws to remove the cooler.

Once fired up and running, the Prolimatech Armageddon does nothing but impress.

Even taking its unloaded cooling abilities, it runs 17c cooler than our stock cooler. Taking into account ambient air differences, it's even three degrees below that of the performance Xigmatek Gaia cooler.

This impressive performance is carried through to its loaded cooling. Again it puts the stock cooler to shame undercutting its temperature by 15c, while it's four degrees under that of the Xigmatek Gaia cooler.

It helps that the cooler happens to come with a good tube of thermal paste but even without that we'd be happily impressed with its performance.

We liked

We liked everything about the Prolimatech Armageddon. It's a no-nonsense, high-performance cooler that's engineered with just that in mind. That makes it large and heavy, but it comes with an equally well-engineered fixing mechanism. All of this contributes to class-leading cooling and a thorough recommendation.

We're not going to criticise the fixing mechanism, because once in place it actually makes total sense.

We disliked

The Prolimatech Armageddon is a pricy cooler, but that's the market it's aimed at. The lack of a cooling fan at this price is going to put off more mainstream buyers.